Why? Because their minds learn at an exponentially higher rate than ours do. My daughter has been enrolled in “day care” (a Montessori school) since age 2. She turned 5 last week and will start kindergarten in August. She can read, write, do addition and subtraction, and her favorite thing is doing scientific “experiments.”

She has learned about different languages, diversity, social justice (teamwork, fairness and friendship) and can explain the solar system, how flowers are pollinated and the migration of monarch butterflies. I cannot honestly take credit for most of that. We are privileged to afford this education in our two-working-parent household.

If you question why all “babies” should be afforded the ability to reach the amazing potential of their minds, I invite you to visit a class of 3- to 5-year-olds and allow them to knock your socks off. While replacing said socks, contemplate, perhaps, how this might “trickle up” through these kids’ lives, and the resulting potential taxpayer savings.

Camille Knight, North Dallas

Doing parents’ job

“Why enroll babies in school?” Paul Kramer took the words right out of my mouth. Sending 3- and 4-year-old tots to school just bogs my mind. Where are the parents? Why don’t the parents have an obligation to teach their children anything at home? I agree that pre-K provides a baby-sitting and day care service.We who have trained and taught our children to behave, to be good citizens resent having to take on the job for others, plus pay for it, for those who won’t take the responsibility of their own children.

Someone please explain to me and everyone else just how we have all these brilliant people that have had these good jobs all these years, have the knowledge they have, and they didn’t start school until 5 and sometimes 6 years old. Just what has changed????

The Senate is on the verge of approving two measures critical to U.S. health care — one impacting seniors, the other impacting underprivileged children.

Three million baby boomers are now entering the Medicare program each year. But will they be able to find physicians who accept it?

Ending what’s known as the sustainable growth rate is now up for vote in the Senate. Unless it’s repealed, physicians’ Medicare reimbursement will be cut by 21 percent, discouraging new physicians from accepting Medicare patients and forcing others to abandon Medicare patients they see today.

Also at stake is a proposed extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which has helped nearly 1 million young Texans living below the poverty level gain access to health care.

We know uninsured children are not only less likely to have their health needs met, they are far less likely to get valuable preventive care. If the Senate denies extended CHIP funding, an estimated 1 out of 3 children covered today would become uninsured.

As health care leaders and as Texans, we strongly encourage our senators to support the passage of these two important pieces of legislation.

It was good to see Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick defend the creation of a $100 million private school tuition program. His words were reasonable and inspiring, rebutting the criticism that private school tax credits and vouchers in Texas would threaten the state’s public schools.

I’m sure Patrick speaks for the majority of Texans when he says our primary goal is to provide choice for lower-income children trapped in failing urban schools, arguing, “We want to give poor families a choice, a chance to go to a good school.”

It’s a fair question. I hope he will feel as strongly about giving poor families a chance to have good health insurance, as well. We have the highest rate of uninsured in the nation, and Medicaid enrollment is growing. If we would accept federal funds, we could expand our state program’s coverage to include poor adults. We should do whatever is necessary to provide good health care to our own poor.

I recently received a mailing from AARP requesting I sign and return petition letters to our Texas representatives in Washington asking that Social Security and Medicare cuts be spared from consideration in balancing the federal budget.

Here is a very simple and novel idea that will avoid the hugely complex task of creating another government program in the name of saving money, and it works 100 percent of the time at my house: Stop spending money you don’t have.

Stealing from the next generation to fund our selfish desires should be elevated to the level of criminal.

Duane Smith, Malakoff

Renew wind goals

I am extremely disappointed that Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-Fort Worth, and Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, voted this week to repeal Texas’ market-based renewable electricity law. Texas has become the undisputed leader in wind energy since the law was enacted in 1999, and in turn has cleaned up our air, saved water and created thousands of new jobs.

The wind industry has brought billions in investment to the state and helped improve the resiliency of our electric grid. SB 931 unfairly targets wind energy, even though fossil fuels continue to get the lion’s share of subsidies. According to the comptroller of Texas, oil and gas receives 99.6 percent of all state subsidies.

The Legislature should reject this shortsighted law and instead keep pushing for higher goals and really maximizing Texas’ potential for renewable energy, for the sake of our economy and our environment.

Turkish consul Alkan’s letter about Peter Balakian is a complete falsification of history.

The consensus on the Armenian genocide’s historical record has been repeatedly stated for decades. In a famous open letter from the International Association of Genocide Scholars to Prime Minister Erdogan (June 2005), the pre-eminent body of scholars worldwide who study genocide noted that the intended mass killing of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government in 1915 constitutes genocide in every sense of the definition of the U.N. Genocide Convention of 1948.

Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who created the concept of genocide as a crime in international law, coined the term Armenian genocide in the 1940s. It is ironic that Alkan is angry over Balakian’s noting that the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide have intersecting dimensions, because Lemkin wrote much about the parallels between the two genocides.

Turkey demeans itself by its denial. Leading Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt writes: “Denial of genocide whether that of the Turks against the Armenians, or the Nazis against the Jews is … an insidious form of intellectual and moral degradation.”

How much revenue is the state realizing from customized license plates? How about we abandon the state’s role in creating mini-billboards, and go back to a stock state of Texas license plate? Automobile owners can then use license plate frames, decals or bumper stickers to exclaim their individual beliefs and be proud of their personal freedom of speech.

In the end, we eliminate one contentious debate, get back to the vehicle identification purpose of the license plate, and streamline the state bureaucracy that is in place to process customized plates.

I’ll take a three-fer that supports freedom of speech, saves cost and relieves tension any day.

I disagree with McKenzie’s comment on graduation committees. He says, “Students stand to lose the most.” Here are some students who stand to gain the most: foreign students with limited experience in English, but who can pass their classes because they work hard; students who do not qualify for special education or 504 and have failed an EOC multiple times (even though they passed the class); or students who attend large public high schools where having a small percentage of them fall through the cracks is common because these students tend to be invisible.

The current grade placement committees for fifth and eighth grades take into account class grades, effort and attendance. I assume the high school committee would be similar. It is not an effort to stamp every high school student who cannot pass an EOC as approved to graduate. It is about professional educators making informed decisions in the best interests of the students. Standardized tests should be used as tools, not as decision-makers.

Debbie Dominguez, Kaufman

… And some rise to challenge

Thank you, William McKenzie, for clearly voicing what so many of us are feeling and thinking concerning the legislators’ proposed lowering of graduation standards in Texas. As legislators, parents and educators, we must never apologize for high standards. I often told the parents of my former English IV and AP students that the greatest compliment I could pay their children was to give them difficult and challenging work with high expectations of excellence. Consequently, I am happy to report, most often rose to that challenge.

Good teachers are more than eager to help faltering students pass the required local and state exit exams. However, some students do not and will not make the effort, even with after-school tutoring, free pizza, free bus rides, etc., especially if they know they can still walk across the stage and graduate with fellow classmates who have worked hard to master the material.

Sadly, when we accept mediocrity or less as the norm — in all areas of life — that will usually be the result of our efforts, and as McKenzie pointed out, “Students stand to lose the most.” Life in the real world will expect their earned diploma — their future ticket!

Re: “Partners in pain — Mustang who was at ‘fault’ in 1958 can commiserate with Moreira,” Thursday SportsDay story.

I’m showing my age (as if my face and body don’t), but I was sitting in the SMU student section in Moody Coliseum that night in 1958. Fifty-seven years later, I watched the recent game on TV while comfortably sitting in my recliner.

I know I cannot be completely objective, but both of those calls were absolutely terrible. The shots in question, both in the closing few seconds, were desperation hail-Marys without a prayer to go in. Even if they were technically goal tending (which I’m not conceding), an official just should not make that call. To do so takes the outcome of the game out of the hands of the players. It’s not as if officials don’t make bad calls or non-calls in almost every game.

Years ago, after pitching softball on hot summer evenings at Tenison Park, I would drive with my date, Shirley Ann Pearson, to the original Keller’s Drive-In on Samuell Boulevard. I would drink three or four mugs of root beer while she would drink a Coke.

Then afterward, with the top down in my brand new 1951 Chevrolet convertible, purchased from McCollister Chevrolet, we would go to White Rock Lake and pass the Bonnie Barge party boat. We had been on dates on the Bonnie Barge before. Then we would drive up Flag Pole Hill, where we watched the White Rock submarine races.

Sixty-four years later, McCollister Chevrolet is no more. My 1951 Chevy convertible is gone. There is no Bonnie Barge party boat on the lake. As for me and my wife, Shirley Ann, we are still in love and still together, although we no longer watch the submarine races at White Rock Lake. We celebrated our 61st wedding anniversary Oct. 10, 2014. Go to Keller’s Drive-In when dating for a good and happy life. It worked for me.

I am actually more of a football fan, but this article caught my attention. I cannot call myself a true Mavericks fan, but I do try my best to keep up with news about the team. When I read this story at first I was shocked only because I never knew that Steve Nash once played on the Mavericks team. It would have been an honor to actually see that.

Secondly, I was moved deeply by the warm words said about Nash from others, especially Mark Cuban. It’s very heartwarming to know that people honor and respect Nash so much after 20 years of hard work. I hope that when I end up doing what I love, I am as appreciated.

Nash is by far one of the best players in the NBA I have ever seen, and it is sad to see him go, but I know it is the right choice for him. He had a good career, and now it is time for him just to be with his family and pass the baton to someone else.

Thank you, Nash, for all your hard work and dedication. Basketball fans everywhere will never forget you.

I think it is great that the leaders of the Dallas County Community College District have made the decision to cut textbook prices because tuition has gone up this year. For a while, I was hesitant about continuing my education because I did not have the incentives needed to attend college.

I am currently attending my first year of college; after two years I decided I have to go back no matter what the cost because I want to be all that I can be for my son. Although I am currently only taking two classes, with the price of textbooks being cut I can afford to attend college next semester as a full-time student. Now that the price of textbooks has gone down, I can use my money toward school supplies and clothes, which I do not have much of.

My college experience has been a good one, and it continues to be, especially with all the good news I’ve heard. I love and appreciate DCCCD. It does a lot for its students, and now I can really say they have done everything they can to make it affordable.

Alyssa Tovar, Dallas

Alternatives to costly college textbooks

I am a 20-year-old student who attends El Centro College, and the recent article about Dallas County Community College District cutting textbook prices is of great interest to me because I often find myself having to choose whether I can afford to pay for my textbooks or my electric bill. I have a part-time job and I still struggle to find the resources needed to pay for all my books even as a part-time student.

I commend DCCCD for recognizing this problem and looking for solutions. A point made in the article was how more students, such as myself, are looking online to find cheaper ways to pay for books. I think it would be great if DCCCD set up its own online textbooks for all their courses at a more affordable price, as compared to buying them from the college or local bookstore.

It is refreshing to see school districts take a more proactive approach when it comes to the affordability of college courses and books.

Putting a premium on helping students save money is bound to help the students worry less about their finances and more about their grades.

No matter how hard Turkey tries to cover up the Armenian genocide or denies it, there are pictures, written resources and word-of-mouth details about this horrible event in history. My Armenian husband learned about this from his grandfather, who was a freedom fighter when the Turks marched his family into the desert. I don’t think all of the Armenian elders who were eyewitnesses are liars.

There is truth and then there is denial. Turkey should man-up and admit that this did happen and not try to cover it up.

McKenzie’s points about rolling back graduation standards highlight the importance of consequences. Many years of experience in working with at-risk youth have revealed a cardinal principle: Demand more, get more. Whether education or accepting personal responsibility for one’s behavior, it holds true. Past efforts at social promotion and self-esteem education (at the expense of learning the 3 Rs) has borne this out.

So the question to raise is: Why this effort to lower standards? If Texas legislators are truly conservative and want to undo the entitlement culture and mentality, what can possibly be their argument? They were elected on that platform. As with our kids’ education, legislators need to be held to a higher standard of accountability.

Charlotte Jones Anderson proposed that in hiring Greg Hardy, the Cowboys offered an opportunity of redemption to a man convicted of assaulting a female and communicating threats.

Redemption? As the author of a pastoral care book on battering and the creator in 1989 of a course on sexual and domestic violence at Perkins School of Theology, I’ve been part of conversations on redemption for batterers for more than 20 years. These conversations have shown repeatedly how difficult it is to create accountability for a batterer, and once Christian-tinged language enters the picture, it is even harder.

Often, a batterer shows remorse, a temporary emotion conveying something like, “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Problematically, that remorse is often caged in language of repentance, as though apology can substitute for a change in behavior. It can’t. While remorse is casual and easy, repentance is a true change. All abusive behavior, control, manipulation, harassment and threats stop. While remorse is just saying, “I’m sorry,” repentance is long-suffering and involves regeneration. Repentance is not freedom from restitution, repentance is tied to restitution (“I need to make this right”).

Redemption is not cheap grace; redemption involves saying, “I am responsible for repairing what I broke.” As well, “I need to tell the truth about what I have done.” And finally: “I must acknowledge that harm has been done and say I’m sorry and mean it. I must change.” Repentance — active change of wrongful behavior — brings about the healing of the human spirit. That is when redemption might be found.

As the chair and members of the American Bar Association’s Texas Capital Punishment Assessment Team, we appreciated your recent editorial. Our team, which consisted of attorneys, legal scholars and former judges, spent two years reviewing current death penalty laws and practices.

In 2013, we issued a comprehensive report detailing dozens of recommendations for improving the fairness and accuracy of our state’s death penalty system. These include enacting a statute banning the application of the death penalty to people with intellectual disabilities and increasing access to DNA testing — the subject of two bills cited in your editorial.

The report also emphasized the need for greater transparency to support public confidence in Texas’ death penalty. Requiring prosecutors to notify defendants of requests to set execution dates — another bill cited in your editorial — is an obvious component of transparency.

Texans cannot accept a capital punishment system with structural impediments to fairness, transparency and assurance that wrongful convictions and executions do not take place. Passing the legislation cited here is an important first step toward correcting significant shortcomings, and we urge all lawmakers to support these critical reforms.

In his column, Blow incorrectly assumes that an officer’s desire to go home safely at the end of watch might control the decision making that goes into the use of deadly force.

While I’m not an expert on police psychology, after over 38 years working and socializing with police officers I can say that I have never heard an officer espouse the notion, which Blow takes away from a “go home safe” philosophy, of “shoot first and ask questions later.” Not once have I heard an officer say that he or she did, or would, behave in a deadly force encounter in a way contrary to law or policy in order to get a jump on a suspect before deadly force was justified.

Blow quotes no past or present officer in support of his supposition. Being conscious and conscientious for one’s safety and the safety of a fellow officer can never be understated or underestimated. If anything, our community has lost too many officers in deadly force confrontations because, for myriad reasons, they did not use force quick enough.

There’s always room for good and better training, but taking the foot off the pedal when it comes to self-protection increases the risk that more officers will be injured or killed in the line of duty.

Israel’s prime minister finally proclaims what his deeds have painfully shown. There will be no two-state solution. The Israeli government, especially during Netanyahu’s administration, has masked its true intentions of denying the Palestinians a homeland. Israel’s participation in peace negotiations has been nothing but a ruse to placate the U.S. and Europe. But now their true intentions have been unmasked.

It is time to take a pragmatic view of our relationship with Israel. While the Israeli government and U.S. supporters have expressed an undying love affair with one another, the U.S. has put pressure on Israel to do just one thing: Make a lasting peace with the Palestinians. Yet their intransigent posture during negotiations and continuous settlement building in Jerusalem and the West Bank make peace impossible. Bibi has thumbed his nose at the U.S. with his denial of a two-state solution.

This is a country that has been caught spying on the U.S. multiple times and has never once provided any soldiers to support the U.S. in any conflict. Yet we pour military aid into the country by the billions every year. For intelligence gathering? Our European allies do it for nothing.

United Nations WHO leaders’ decision to delay sounding the international alarm regarding Ebola in Africa may have cost many lives, according to the Associated Press article. This decision appeared to be for political, religious and economic reasons, not the health concerns of the region or the world at large. American leaders refused to impose a travel ban, one of the worries of the WHO director-general, which led to the fiasco in Dallas where the first case of Ebola in the U.S. was diagnosed.

Now, President Obama’s administration is looking to use the same U.N. to finalize the Iranian nuclear deal to bypass Congress. And this is supposed to make the region, Israel and the U.S. more secure? I think not.

While I love the idea of clean energy from the sun (be it wind, thermal or photovoltaic), I don’t agree with the DMN editorial in favor of Georgetown municipal power’s decision to go 100 percent renewable, and I would not recommend it as a model for others to follow.

The issues are choice, reliability and efficiency. The residents of Georgetown have no choice because Georgetown runs a municipal power department. Georgetown promotes that they are saving the citizens money with long-term commitments with SunEdison and EDF, but both companies enjoy multiple subsidies and preferences, and those costs are borne by all taxpayers.

Scaling up to the nation would scale up the subsidies, the true costs of which would then become much more apparent. Solar power sources also require reliable base-load backup for the times when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. That can work as long as solar comprises just a fraction of total capacity, but maintaining reliability becomes progressively more difficult and expensive as solar-based power generation increases.

Lastly, the array of federal, state and municipal laws and preferences distort the market, resulting in potentially lost opportunities for cheaper alternatives. As always, consumers are best served by open markets.

Eric Parker, Dallas

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We welcome and read all letters from readers, and we salute those people willing to sign their names to their opinions. The letters chosen for publication are a representative sampling of the opinions shared with us. We include all published letters on this blog and encourage readers to engage in a civil debate: Attack ideas, if you like, but not one another.